SRX Made 5 Flags, Bubba Pollard Look Like a Million Bucks
Jun 20, 2022
Chase Elliott has made eight starts in the Snowball Derby with two victories so if anyone knows what it takes to put together a contending program for the first week of December at Five Flags Speedway, it’s the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion.
To that point, Saturday marked the first time since his 2020 third place run that Elliott appeared at the venerable Florida half-mile.
He was in town during a Cup Series off-weekend to support his dad, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott and longtime friend Bubba Pollard as they participated in the first race of the second Superstar Racing Experience season.
"He's done it before but to come here and watch is fun, especially on Father's Day weekend, and my opportunities on weekends are far and few between," Elliott told Racing America on Saturday. "This isn't something I take for granted. I want to see him do well. He really enjoys this kind of thing.
"As for Bubba, I expect him to do very well as many laps as he has around here in these kind of cars."
It was also a chance for Elliott to return to the track that he has more starts at than any other between his eight Snowball Derby appearances, six Snowflake 100 appearances and dozens of starts across the Blizzard Super Late Model Series and Allen Turner Pro Late Model Series.
Is Elliott already thinking ahead to a potential ninth start in the Super Bowl of Short Track Racing?
"It's something I always think about doing," Elliott said. "It's just not that easy, you know, because it's a big commitment to do. To do it the way that I want to do it isn't as simple as it may seem."
To his point, there are competition related considerations. He will want to be in a race winning car with championship caliber people around him. One of those people is long-time crew chief Ricky Turner, who guided Elliott to all of his victories while racing Late Models full-time over the previous decade.
Turner was in attendance on Saturday to hang out with old friends Pollard, Elliott and Elliott.
But the Snowball Derby is also incredibly expensive, and the business elements have to make sense for Elliott to enter the race as well. That is to say nothing of the reality that the Cup Series championship banquet is frequently scheduled alongside Derby Week.
It’s certainly not a lack of interest.
"So, if the opportunity is right and the time is right, then yes, I would love to come back," Elliott said. "If it's not, then you know, I won't come back this year. It just depends on the timing and whether or not we want to come back."
